Fence 39 has coalesced during the 21st century’s first pandemic, a globalinflection point — or ongoing duration — from which we must all pivot. No matter the scope of the task before us, we ask ourselves how do we do this, now? How can we do this now? And the fuzzy and foggy shape of […]

      I started writing a journal during the pandemic, but as deaths numbers increased, everything seemed very narcissistic. Writing about my mundane daily experiences of a nursing researcher seemed meaningless and selfish, so I stopped and focused on working on awareness and health education. I started with my family, those close to me […]

       I won’t forget the day the boss leaned into my office doorway at the hospice and said, “They’re calling it a pandemic.” I stared at him. “We’re in a pandemic. It begins now.” We’d seen it coming; still, we looked at one another to mark our last moment of pre-pandemic innocence, the […]

Sheltering in Place for Beginners    Are you awake? You have relied on anesthesia during the scapel’s trusty removals. In the ice melt of morning    sit still, read jokes. Wind predicts drought. You will grow  strong in your heart’s ribbed hospital. Become the blue   rising up over your bed. Wake to smell a […]

The jammed hallways packed emergency room, the ICU.  I could feel the mounting panic in the chest  of the staff making it difficult to breathe. The sweat beneath their scrubs  and yellow long-sleeved gowns. Their latex gloved hands, N95’d mouths plastic shielded faces. I could see the underground corridor that connected one part of the […]

When I meet Peter, he is the first patient I’ve cared for in almost a full year who is capable of smiling. During this pandemic, almost all the patients in our ICU have been so critically ill that they could not smile. They were intubated and sedated, a tube sticking out of their mouth and […]